Crossing Over is Never Easy
by Dark Ice Dragon
Summary: ·Danny Phantom Bleach crossover· Danny Fenton's life hasn't exactly been easy for the last few months. And now a shinigami has come through the Fenton Portal. ... WHAT? ·Discontinued·
1. Um, What?

Long-ish author notes this time.

;p I can hear you groaning at the pun of the title. Don't blame me, it was the first thing that came to my head and nothing else didn't.

The timelines. Now, Bleach is set just after episode seven, "Greetings from a Stuffed Toy". Danny Phantom's timeline is set between "Reign Storm" and "Identity Crisis" .

XO Ugh. Ichigo seems very out of character to me - the second part anyway. Danny's fine (I hope). And I wanted Ichigo to freak out...

Translations of the Japanese words or just canon jargon for Bleach are at the bottom.

That done, enjoy the fic.

* * *

**This story is _discontinued. _If you don't mind that, continue. **

* * *

**Crossing Over is Never Easy**

By Dark Ice Dragon**  
**

Um, What?

* * *

Ichigo Kurosaki pivoted, dodged and brought up his zanpakutou to block the claws reaching for his head. Pushing them away with the help of his zanpakutou (sparks flying dangerously close to his face), he jumped - just as the Hollow's other hand smashed onto the spot where he had just been standing.

When he reached the top of his jump, Ichigo swung his zanpakutou with as much force as he could muster down on to where the Hollow's head was.

Except it wasn't there anymore.

"Ichigo!"

He had enough time to hear Rukia's warning and half turn while still in the air before he felt the Hollow's tail slam into his back.

He crashed onto the ground with the tail still on top of him making the landing even more painful. His free arm was bent at the elbow, caught between his body and the concrete ground. His sword arm was out in the open but the tail was pressing the hardest on his right shoulder making him unable to use his arm.

There was a low chuckle. "_You're_ a _shinigami_? This fight was far too easy." The tail moved, crushing Ichigo further into the ground.

Ichigo grunted under the pressure. He gritted his teeth and the grip on his zanpakutou tightened. If he could just... The Hollow didn't seem to notice that Ichigo had shifted his own body slightly under the strain. Or it just didn't care.

"Heh. I haven't tasted a _shinigami_ soul before and yours smells like it's going to be a feast!" He could hear the Hollow being on the verge of drooling. The Hollow twitched its tail in anticipation.

Ichigo pushed off the ground with a yell and with a sweep of his arm, cut the tail off from the rest of its body. He scrambled to his feet and held his zanpakutou out, ready to attack or defend.

The Hollow howled in pain and surprise. It gained its balance and then lashed at him with its hand once more.

Dodging it, Ichigo sliced at the arm. The Hollow was still quick enough to move out of the way but not enough to get away completely unscathed. It howled again.

Ichigo didn't wait for it to recover and attack. While it was distracted he swept his zanpakutou underneath and up towards the Hollow's head.

It didn't block or even try to.

Breathing heavily, Ichigo turned his back to it without waiting to see what would happen next. He'd been doing this for a while now so it wasn't anything new.

He looked to the spot where he had last seen Rukia and frowned slightly when he saw that she hadn't left it. Jeez, he was doing her job; couldn't she be a bit concerned for him as a person, and not just someone to carry out her orders for her?

The frown deepened when he saw her wide-eyed look. His eyes sliding away from her, wondering what it was that had unsettled her, Ichigo noticed a particular difference in the scene from what it was normally like. He stiffened out of habit, waiting for another attack if one were to come.

_'Why is there a green light? The body should have disappeared by now._'

Before the thought fully processed, something neon green wrapped itself around his waist and yanked him backwards. He didn't have enough time to even blink before his feet left the ground.

The last thing he saw was Rukia running towards him before his vision turned green.

:-:-:

"Wha-?" Ichigo's eyes snapped open. He could see a steel ceiling above him and the smell that was in the room was something that he was unaccustomed to. His hand reached up past his head and clutched the hilt of his zanpakutou. At least he wasn't completely defenceless. So where was he? Easing himself up slowly (a little hard with the sheath on his back but he could still manage it), Ichigo took stock of where he was.

He didn't have a clue.

Looking around at the objects in the room (laboratory? It looked like one), Ichigo knew that he had never been there before. It didn't look remotely like anything that he'd seen apart from a more refined laboratory from the ones in school. There were multiple tables with beakers filled with various luminous liquids dotted around the room. As well as that, there were bits and pieces of unfinished machinery sprawled all over the place. They covered the floor, some of the tables and took up all the spaces on most of the shelves. Ichigo noticed that there was a staircase leading out of the room in the far corner. He'd head for that as soon as he remembered how he had gotten here.

What was the last thing that he'd done? He remembered being in his room with Rukia after dinner when she had gotten a call saying there was a Hollow loose in the city. (Big surprise.) They had climbed out of his window and tracked it down to the river bank. Ichigo had fought it and won. And then...

He had found himself here. With no idea how he had got 'here' or how he was going to get back home.

But what was that glow? Ichigo tilted his head backwards to look behind him. That _green_ swirling... whatever-it-was probably had something to do with how he had gotten to this place.

Finally standing up, instead of propping himself up on his elbows, he walked slowly towards the green light. It was the last thing he saw so if he maybe-

"Oh. Hey."

Ichigo whirled around to look at the person who had surprised him. There was no-one there. Which meant...

"Up here."

He slowly raised his eyes up to the ceiling. What he saw was a boy's head with messy white hair and bright green eyes sticking out the ceiling. Nothing strange about that. Ichigo had just never really seen a ghost that walked through walls; only floating a few feet off of the ground, if that. But then again, he wasn't always on the look-out for ghosts so he had probably just missed those ones.

"What, no speech? Not declarations of what you're going to do? Not even your name?" The ghost drifted completely through the ceiling and hovered slightly above Ichigo's head. The rest of the ghost's body was clothed in black skin-tight clothing that ended in white skin-tight gloves. There was a white emblem on the ghost's chest but Ichigo didn't recognise it. The ghost crossed his arms expectantly.

Ichigo's response to that was to merely give the ghost a look. Why would he want to do that? Hollows weren't usually -usually being the key word- big on speeches and why would he waste time telling a Hollow what he was going to do when it could use that time to create more damage? Or eat souls?

Telling a ghost, on the other hand, was different. If he told a ghost what he was going to do, they'd go into a panic and run away and then he'd have to chase after them before using _konsou _on them. He'd seen how the ghost in his room had reacted when Rukia had used _konsou _on him. And that was when he _didn't_ know what she was doing. Of course, when she said that she was a _shinigami_, that probably didn't help.

The ghost blinked and relaxed his arms a little. "No? So, you wouldn't mind just going back to the Ghost Zone, without a fight?" There was a hopeful tone in the boy's voice.

"The Ghost Zone?" Ichigo repeated, a little confused. "I've never heard of that place before." Maybe it was another name for Soul Society? But how did the spirit know about the other name? Maybe that was what they called it here.

Another blink. "Uhh, you _just_ came from there." The ghost pointed towards the green whatever-it-was behind Ichigo.

"I didn't come from a Ghost Zone," Ichigo stated flatly. Apart from the fact that the last thing he had seen was green. Maybe he'd travelled _through_ it?

The ghost rolled his eyes. "Riiight. That's why you're standing here, outside the Fenton Portal, in clothing that obviously isn't from this century and my ghost sense went off when you came out of the portal. You're telling me, you're not a ghost." The sarcasm rolled off the ghost's tongue easily.

Ichigo thought the last part over. He _was_ a _shinigami_ but he was technically a ghost since he had to leave his body every time he needed to use his powers. He'd never really thought about it that way. He realised another thing that he'd heard the spirit say.

"Your ghost sense?" Ichigo repeated uncertainly. "Whatever it does, shouldn't it go off all the time since you're a ghost as well?" he asked.

The ghost suddenly looked uneasy. "Only other ghosts."

Which, kind of made sense. "And you detected me?"

A nod. The ghost jerked as if he had realised something. "Aw man, the time. Could you just go back to the Ghost Zone? I don't have time for this!"

Ichigo's head tilted slightly to the side. "You have somewhere to go?" Ghosts didn't have to worry about time. They only had to wait until a _shinigami_ came and sent them to Soul Society. And the place that they normally waited was usually the place that the person had died. Or, if they knew that there was someone in the vicinity that could see them and could maybe help them with something, Ichigo's mind added.

"Yeah. School."

Ichigo couldn't help it - both his eyebrows rose in surprise. School? Ichigo thought that the ghost knew he was dead. After all, the boy had floated through the ceiling/floor. Unless that was the place he was haunting. Ichigo opened his mouth to comment when a voice drifted down the stairs from the corner of the room.

"Danny!" The sound of stairs protesting slightly.

"Oh no." The ghost's (Danny's?) eyes widened and he flew up through the ceiling.

_Clang_.

Ichigo looked over his shoulder already knowing what he was going to see. Okay, he wasn't expecting the door to be striped black and yellow but there was still a barrier there.

He walked up to it and touched the door. A flash of green. And not doing that again, one part of his mind commented dryly as the other part cursed profusely. If he touched it and it felt like his hand had just been shocked, he wasn't going to go near it. But how was he going to get through it? Was he going to have to wait until the next time it opened? And when would that be? And how would he know when that was? Too many questions and no answers.

So, he was trapped here (wherever here was) with no way of getting back. Why wasn't he freaking out? Was he _that_ used to things like this popping up out of nowhere that it no longer phased him?

"I'm sure I heard Danny," he heard someone mumble. He turned his head to look over his shoulder again and saw a red-haired girl. Her eyes wandered over the counters as if expecting Danny to pop out of nowhere. Which, Ichigo supposed, if he was thinking of the right person, Danny could actually do that. But if that was the case, why couldn't she see him? The ghost had left as if he knew that the girl could see him.

The girl rubbed her chin a little bit, a puzzled frown on her face. She shrugged and started to walk back up the stairs.

The sound of someone running down stairs from the floor above. "Bye mom, dad! Late for school!" The slamming of a door.

"He's late for-?" The girl checked the clock on the wall. "_I'm_ late for school!" She ran up the stairs.

Which left Ichigo Kurosaki trapped somewhere where he didn't know where he was without a body.

'_Well,_' he thought to himself, '_if I have to travel to get home, at least I don't have to worry about money._'

He headed up the stairs to figure out where he was and how he was going to get home.

* * *

_Hollow_: The name of bad spirits that are no longer human and eat souls of the dead and living alike.

_Konsou_: Soul burial. When the soul is sent to Soul Society.

_Shinigami_: Translated as "Death God" or literally as "God of Death".

_Soul Society_: Heaven

_Zanpukutou_: The sword that _shinigami_ use to purify Hollows and send Plus spirits (good ghosts) to Soul Society.

* * *

Any good? I still think he's out of character. Any suggestions on how to get him back in character?

If you spot any problems, spelling mistakes, please tell me. I won't bite.

Last one. The next update will be on the third of January. I'll be updating every two weeks until I've run out of chapters that have been pre-writen. Once/If I run out of said pre-writen chapters after a certain time, well, I'm a slow updater. And by that time, I'll be back in uni so I won't have as much time to write. (shrugs) Just the way it goes.


	2. Just the Usual

Apologies for being an idiot in the first chapter and not putting up any translations for anything.

So enjoy.

* * *

**Crossing Over is Never Easy**

By Dark Ice Dragon**  
**

Just the Usual

* * *

Sam turned her head to the sound of running feet approaching her from behind. Seeing that it was Danny, she smiled at herself when she saw his slightly panicked state. She pushed herself away from the locker that she was leaning on as he got even closer. 

Danny stopped in front of her, his breath slightly heavier than usual. "I'm not late am I?" Danny asked, glancing at his two friends. He twisted slightly to adjust the strap on his bag after catching his breath.

"Well," Tucker started, "since we're here and not in class, what do you think?" Tucker smirked at Danny while he pulled out his PDA to check the time. "It'll ring in a few minutes though."

Danny sighed in relief, a grin forming on his face as well. One of the better things about being a half-ghost was that he never had to wait for the bus or be crushed by everyone else in the bus. Still, he'd cut it a bit close but it was always better than being late.

"What happened?" Sam asked as she checked for any visible bruises that might have to be explained. "A ghost came out of the portal?"

Danny snorted a little, casually crossing his arms. "What else? It wasn't a ghost that I've seen before though."

Tucker slipped the PDA back into his pocket. "You sent it back to the Ghost Zone?"

"Ah, not exactly." Danny rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly and avoided their eyes. "I was already running late and he didn't seem dangerous. Plus, Jazz was coming down the stairs." He shrugged helplessly. "What was I supposed to do? There wasn't enough time to fight him so I went intangible and flew away."

"He didn't seem dangerous," Tucker repeated, deadpan. "Isn't that what you thought about Technus?"

"And look at what happened when you gave him any ideas," Sam added with a pointed look.

"Don't remind me," Danny said with a fake groan, the grin slipping from his face a little but not totally. "Don't worry, I didn't give _this_ ghost any ideas," he reassured the two of them. The ghost had hardly spoken either, which was a plus.

Just then, the tardy bell rang.

"And another day at Casper High starts," Tucker said dully as the three teenagers walked towards their first period class.

"Hey, Danny?"

"Yeah Sam?"

"You_ were_ able to do the homework, right?"

"We had homework?" Danny asked weakly, his shoulders slumping. "Hoo boy, this is going to be fun."

"Danny," Tucker said as he playfully slapped Danny on the back, "you say that as if math was _meant_ to be fun."

  
:-:-:

Sam watched Danny as he sat heavily at the table and rested his head on his crossed arms. She gingerly touched his shoulder. Danny just sighed but didn't move away from her touch. They had just finished with math and were now in the playground during break.

"Another detention." Danny's voice was muffled so Sam had to strain and move slightly closer to hear him clearly. "How am I supposed to balance ghost fighting and school when I have a curfew and at least one detention every single week?"

"Speaking of ghost fighting," Tucker said, trying to distract his friend from his predicament, "you didn't tell us anything more about that ghost this morning."

Danny raised his head from his arms, his expression dejected. "That's because there wasn't that much to tell. I think he died at a costume party because-" Danny stopped speaking and he shivered slightly.

Sam didn't need the extra clue of the frozen mist coming from Danny's mouth to know that there was a ghost nearby.

"_Now_?" Danny said in a resigned tone. "Can't I get a break, like, ever?" He stood up and just as he was walking away, he turned back to look at Tucker and Sam and asked, "Whose class have we got next anyway?"

The two shared a look. "Lancer's," they said in unision.

Danny covered his face with his hand and groaned. "Just great. Because my week is no longer complete without missing one of Lancer's classes." He shook his head, reminding himself what he was supposed to be doing. "Cover for me?" He didn't really need to ask the question but still, it was better than just running off.

His two friends nodded.

"Thanks," Danny said with a smile. He ran off and hid behind a tree. There was a white flash and then 'Danny Phantom' flew away from that same tree.

"So," Tucker said after seeing Danny leave, "what excuse are we going to use this time?"

Sam shrugged. "Problem is, Danny's right – we've had to cover so much for him in Lancer's class, he's heard most of our plausible excuses."

Tucker looked thoughtful. "We could always try saying that he has cancer."

"Somehow, I don't think Lancer's going to buy that."

  
:-:-:

Danny Phantom flew away from another ghost attack, a Fenton Thermos held firmly in his hand.

Three ghost attacks in a row. _Three_. And he hadn't gone back to school even once. Every time he tried to, his ghost sense would go off again. He didn't know how long he'd been fighting for but it would be _really_ nice to have a break some time soon.

Now all he had to do was send the ghost back to the Ghost Zone and then he could (hopefully) go back to school. Wow, as a fourteen-year-old kid, he really shouldn't be wanting to go to school. Or saying anything remotely like how he wanted to study.

Danny shivered and his breath froze in front of him. Just then, a cacophony of screams started.

Or, you know, not.

Ugh. The last time he'd fought this many ghosts one after another was just before Johnny 13 had come out of the Ghost Zone. As far as Danny knew, his parents hadn't been installing anything new into the Fenton Portal but then again, he hadn't known that time either.

Strapping the Fenton Thermos on to his back, Danny flew to where the screaming was.

When he reached the spot where the screaming was the loudest, Danny just hovered there and cursed his bad luck. There were two ghosts there - one of them was the ghost that he had seen that morning.

Okay, maybe not as harmless as he had thought he was, Danny thought as he surveyed the damage around him.

Danny had thought that the ghost from that morning was harmless because he was wearing a Halloween costume. That was turning out to not be the be the case since the 'harmless' ghost was wielding a sword that was easily taller than Danny as if it was a stick. And he had thought that the sheath was a prop...

The other ghost was green, large (getting larger by the minute) and laughing with glee.

Which one to attack first, his mind mused. The swordsman seemed like (though Danny knew that there was very little chance of it actually being true) he would only attack physically while the other ghost was still growing. Better stop that one before it got any larger.

Danny charged up an ectoplasmic ball in his hand. He drew his hand back and was just about to fire when he heard a shout.

"Hey! What do ya think you're doing?"

He looked down and saw that it was the swordsman, half waving his sword in the air. Uh oh.

"Get outta here!" the swordsman ordered. "I don't want you to get hurt." The swordsman turned back around to face the other ghost and held out his sword out in front of him.

Danny blinked in surprise. Well, that was different. No other ghosts had helped him unless they absolutely had to, apart from Wulf. This was the first time a ghost was willing to help him when Danny hadn't done anything to earn that first.

But he wasn't going to stop fighting just because there was someone else there to do it for him.

The ectoplasmic ball still in his hand, Danny shot it towards the green ghost. It hit the mark. The place where the ectoplasm had hit created a sizable hole in the ghost's bulk.

Taking a closer look at the damage around them while the ghost was distracted, Danny saw that it was mostly the sidewalk that had been ripped up. So if the ghost was like the Lunch Lady Ghost and Technus 2.0, it becomes stronger with... concrete? Oh great. That's not going to be hard to get through and it's _definitely_ going to hurt when it hits.

The debris around the ghost stopped moving and it glared up at him. "You!" it roared. "First I get this ghost-" -it gestured to the swordsman- "annoying me-"

"Hey! Who're you callin' annoying?" the swordsman shouted, irritation showing on his face for being dismissed as a trival threat.

"-and now you come along to bug me as well?" The ghost snorted. "But I've heard about you in the Ghost Zone," it added, its voice suddenly calmer, softer. "It'll be better for me if I didn't fight you." It turned away from the two other ghosts.

Danny blinked again in confusion. Then what the ghost was meaning clicked in his head. "Oh no you don't!" he yelled as he sped towards the ghost. "You're not getting away!"

Too late, the concrete was falling away in giant slabs as the ghost phased out of the faux body. Before Danny reached the ghost she phased through the road and disappeared completely.

"Argh," Danny sighed in frustration, staring at the spot where the ghost had gone. A ghost was on the loose and he didn't know how to track her. If he was lucky, she wouldn't cause that much havoc until he found her again and sent her back to the Ghost Zone. Riiight, just like Desiree. Why did this one have to be smart for once?

"How did you do that?"

Danny looked up to see the swordsman regarding him carefully as he picked his way over the rubble that the ghost had left. The swordsman was frowning and his eyebrows were drawn together, although, he didn't look particularly angry. And his massive sword was casually resting on top of his right shoulder. Danny wondered just how heavy that thing was and how strong the swordsman had to be to weild it so easily.

"What, my Ghost Ray?" Danny asked, making sure they were talking about the same thing. The swordsman nodded. He shrugged. "I just can - I never tried to work out _how_." Time to ask his own questions. Then, at least, he would know why the swordsman was fighting the other ghost. Hopefully, it wouldn't be because he only wanted to fight really strong opponents.

"What's your name?" Please let him not have a long speech.

There was a _shick_ as the swordsman sheathed his sword in one fluid movement. "Ichigo Kurosaki."

There was a brief pause. "Wait, you have a _name_?"

Ichigo stared at him suspiciously, his eyes narrowing slightly. "You asked for my name and I told you it."

Danny waved his hands in a placating mannor. "I didn't mean it like that." He scratched his head, thinking over the correct wording. "The ghosts that I've encountered here have never told me their real names. They tell me their..." Danny searched for a word, "code names?"

"Danny!" Danny jerked at the sound of his name. Turning around, he saw Sam and Tucker running towards him.

"You guys skipped class to find me?" So who was covering for them? Not that he wasn't grateful that they were here or anything.

The two of them reached Danny but placed themselves a little bit away from him seeing as the concrete was still moving and unstable.

"No," Sam said, shaking her head. "It's lunch now."

Danny's eyes widened. It was lunch already? Maybe he should figure out a way to keep a watch on himself when he went into his ghost form. But considering how he always looked the same in ghost form no matter what he was wearing in human form, it didn't seem like it was going to work.

Tucker looked around as if he was searching for something. "Who were you talkin' to, Danny?"

"What are you talking about?" Danny looked between his friends in bafflement. "He's right there." Danny waved an arm in Ichigo's direction. Sam and Tucker looked to the spot that Danny had indicated. They looked back at him, confusion showing on their faces.

"They can't see me," Ichigo said quietly to Danny. "To them, it looked like you were talking to yourself."

"They can't?" Danny repeated in disbelief. He turned around to face Ichigo, wanting an explanation. Ichigo's form wasn't glowing to show that he was invisible and he wasn't even intangible. So why couldn't Sam and Tucker see him?

"Normal humans can't see me." Oh, _that_ was a good explanation. That explained everything right there.

"Why not?" It didn't make any sense!

"Uh, Danny...?" He didn't realised that Tucker had spoken to him as he was still trying to work out what Ichigo was saying.

Ichigo scratched his cheek with one finger. "Only humans with high spiritual energy can see me."

Danny rolled his eyes and asked sarcastically, "What are you, some kind of special ghost or something?"

Ichigo shrugged. "You could say that. I'm a_ shinigami_."

"A shin-what?" Danny repeated, trying to get his tongue around the strange word.

"It's a-"

"Danny, get out of here!" Sam interupted him.

Danny glanced at his friend and frowned in concern - Sam was looking paler than usual. "What's wrong Sam?"

"Oh, I don't know, the police are coming." Listening to the quiet road, Danny could hear the wail of police sirens getting closer by the second. "And certain _other people_ as well."

"Ah, right." They _had_ been talking for a while now. "I'll catch you guys later." Danny waved at the three of them before flying off in the direction of his house. He didn't try to trap Ichigo in the Fenton Thermos. He had an ally who seemed willing to help him fight ghosts. Why would he want to get rid of that by sending him back to the Ghost Zone?

But what exactly was a... a _shinigami_?

* * *

_Shinigami_: Translated as "Death God" or literally as "God of Death".

* * *

I seem to have dropped a few DannySam hints there without realising... Hmm, if you're gonna ask about that, this isn't going to turn into romance between the two. I don't normally write pairings or anything like that. I'm pretty much just a genfic writer. 

Just a few questions that I need cleared up for the next couple of chapters, if you can answer them, it'll be helpful for me.  
Does Maddie have any special nicknames for Danny?  
When is detention normally held? After school on the day that it was given or on the friday?  
How many classes is there normally after lunch?

Okay, that's done, the next update will be on either the twenty-third or twenty-fourth of January. Mainly because I've got assessments to hand in just before then and those are more important.


	3. Best Intentions

Thanks to the people who reviewed and answered my questions in the last chapter.

Translations and jargon are at the end.

* * *

**Crossing Over is Never Easy**

By Dark Ice Dragon**  
**

Best Intentions

* * *

"Is it clear?" 

Sam and Tucker glanced around the playground as slyly as they could. There was no-one near them and no-one looking in their general direction.

Tucker leaned forwards and rested his cheek on his fist. "It's clear," he confirmed, hiding his moving lips behind his fist.

There was a brief white flash under the table that Sam and Tucker were sitting at and Danny crawled up from under it. He sat down heavily next to Tucker.

"I am _starving_," Danny complained. "I haven't eaten anything since... yesterday. Aw man." The realisation of the fact made his stomach tighten even more. Danny clutched his stomach just as it growled. It was as if just knowing the last time he had eaten made the hunger pain even worse.

Sam fished around in her schoolbag and pulled out a sandwich. She handed it to Danny. "Here."

He looked at it and then back at Sam. He shook his head and attempted to give it back to her. "Sam, I can't."

She rolled her eyes and slid away from Danny far enough that he couldn't reach her to give it back easily. "Sure ya can. I bought it on the way back to school. And it's got meat in it," -Danny took a closer look and saw that she was right- "I'm an ultra-recyclo vegetarian remember? I don't eat meat."

Danny withdrew his arm. "Wow, thanks." He unwrapped the sandwich and took a bite. Okay, that felt good. He could feel himself slouching more on the seat but he didn't care. He had food in his stomach and that was all that mattered for the moment.

Sam's lips quirked. "I'm not the only one you should thank." She nodded to Tucker. "Tucker was the one who realised that you hadn't had anything to eat at break either."

Taking a swallow, Danny said, "Thanks. Both of you. I couldn't have better best friends." He looked at each of them and smiled.

Sam smiled back.

"Ah, it was nothing," Tucker said, pretending to blush and look away.

Sam looked around again and leaned forward. "That ghost you were speaking to when we found you - what did he look like?" she asked in a low tone.

Danny had already taken a bite out of the sandwich so Sam and Tucker had to wait as Danny chewed and swallowed. He used that time to remind himself what the ghost had looked like. "Tall. Orange hair. He was wearing a black robe. Oh yeah, and he had the _biggest_ sword I have ever seen." That was the hardest thing to forget. The sword had to have been made specifically for him or something because a sword that size wasn't exactly regular-sized. He wasn't an expert but you didn't really need to be one to know what a normal person _should_ be able to carry.

Tucker raised an eyebrow skeptically. "How big?"

Danny tried to indicate how long and wide the sword was with his arms. He thought that his arms only covered the blade and not the additional length of the hilt. "Cloud Strife's Buster Sword had nothing on it." Tucker whistled, his eyes getting wide. "His sword wasn't as wide as the Buster Sword and it wasn't as long as Sephiroth's but you get the idea." As if anyone would really make a six foot length sword - even if the sword already looked hard to weild and it wasn't as long.

"Yikes," Sam muttered. "That big."

Danny nodded when he heard her. "Yeah, _that_ big. But he's on my side so that's a good thing," he added with a small smile of relief.

"Uh, how to you know that?" Tucker asked Danny uncertainly.

"Because he was fighting another ghost when I got there and he wanted me to get away in case I got hurt," Danny explained. He took another bite out of his sandwich.

"There could be a reason for that Danny," Sam warned.

"Yeah, what if the guy's like Skulker and wanted to be the only one to hurt you and no-one else to?" Tucker pointed out, flailing his arms slightly.

"Oh, come _on_ you guys!" Danny said in exasperation as he waved what was left of his sandwich in the air. "I find _one_ ghost out of the millions of ghosts in the Ghost Zone who's willing to help me -apart from Wulf- and you guys think it's a trap."

"Uh, _yeah_!" Sam and Tucker said in unison.

"I can't believe this!" Danny said angrily. "Fine, if that's what you think, I'm going." He stood up from the table, leaving his sandwich behind.

"Danny, wait!" Sam held up a hand to try and stop him but he evaded her and Tucker's hands and started running.

Sam slumped back into her seat, not trying to run after him. She knew as soon as Danny hit a corner that no-one was looking at, he would disappear from sight. Literally. Knowing this, she buried her face in her hands. Why didn't she just tell him straight away?

Tucker looked at the direction that Danny had run to. "Do you think he'll be in class?"

"I don't know."

:-:-:

Ichigo was confused. He'd checked the maps, the tourist leaflets and the newspapers. He knew that there was a day's difference between today's date and the date that he last knew. So he hadn't been unconscious for too long, only a few hours.

The question was how he had somehow found himself in America. The answer for that lay in that -what had the ghost called it?- 'Fenton Portal'. How had it brought him here? And why him? Why specifically him? Because he was _shinigami_?

After half a day in Amity Park he could guess that could be a valid reason. The city was filled to bursting point with ghosts. Either there was a very high death rate in Amity Park (there didn't seem to be any indication of that in the newspapers) or there wasn't someone to send them to Soul Society. Specifically, a _shinigami_.

What had happened to the _shinigami_ in the city? And why hadn't Soul Society sent another _shinigami_ to replace him or her?

Unless... he was the one they sent.

Ichigo screwed his eyes shut and rubbed his forehead with a palm. That didn't make any sense! Soul Society didn't know that he had _shinigami_ powers or else they wouldn't be sending orders to Rukia. And they would have probably ordered her to go back there so that she could recover her powers there if they knew.

And then there were the 'Hollows' in the city. Ichigo _knew_ that they couldn't be the Hollows that he was used to fighting. He opened his eyes and started to walk again in a random direction. Rukia had told him that all Hollows, even though they all differed from one another, had one universal constant: their masks. Every Hollow wore a white skeletal mask.

None of the 'Hollows' that he had fought here had been wearing one. They looked mostly like a Plus spirit but it was wreaking havoc on the city like a Hollow would. Maybe the mask was hidden somewhere else...

Another thing that was different from the Hollows that he was used to was that he had never seen any Hollows use the environment around them to make themselves stronger. And bigger. A _lot_ bigger from their original size. Were these Hollows a completely different breed from the Hollows in his hometown like the Menos were?

On the other hand, he _had_ been successful in sending a few Pluses to Soul Society. Now, there was that one ghost that Ichigo hadn't found again - that white-haired boy.

Ichigo had appreciated the help (he was still getting used to fighting these kinds of 'Hollows') from him but he didn't want to see the ghost being hurt because he had been fighting and Ichigo wasn't able to protect him properly.

But how long had that ghost been fighting the other ghosts here? He seemed to have a reputation in the 'Ghost Zone'. Could the ghost be acting as a _shinigami_ here and that was why another one hadn't been sent?

By the looks of things, the ghost was better suited to fighting these 'Hollows' instead of him, Ichigo had to admit. Ichigo didn't know any _kidou_ like Rukia (okay, he didn't have _any_ official _shinigami_ training) and it was obvious that he was at a disadvantage by only attacking with his zanpukutou.

He'd never seen any Hollows that could turn themselves intangible before; Rukia had never mentioned it either. And in Ichigo's head, what was the point? Hollows were interested in one thing and one thing only: eating souls. It didn't matter to them if they demolished an entire building to get the soul they were after. They could leave the human world when they wanted but going intangible had no use for them. The more damage they created, the more chance they would kill someone which meant more food for them.

So should he use _konsou_ on that ghost or not? It was his job to lead the unsent spirits to Soul Society. But it seemed like it was also the ghost's job to get rid of the 'Hollows' here. Ichigo couldn't leave the city without a protector - especially if a _shinigami_ wasn't anywhere to be found.

Ichigo stopped next to a wall and leaned on it. What if - what if the same thing that had happened to Rukia had happened to the _shinigami_ here? That a _shinigami_ had given their powers to a human because the _shinigami_ had been too injured to fight but the human had died soon after? No power, no way of getting home. No _shinigami_.

It painfully made sense. Ichigo took a long look at the street he was in. Specifically, the people.

Some were laughing with friends; others were quietly listening to music as they walked down the street. Normal. Except the laughs were sometimes too loud, too fake. The ones by themselves, their eyes jittered from place to place, as if they were trying to find something.

They were expecting a ghost to attack at any given moment. In Karakura Town, Ichigo's hometown, this wasn't the case. Only the few people who could see ghosts and Hollows really knew what the 'bombs' and 'explosions' were. The rest of the populace accepted the explanations they were given on the news as to them - it seemed 'normal'. It was bad, yeah, but it was what made sense to their world. The usage of _kiokuchikan_ had probably also helped.

To the people in Amity Park, it was natural to assume anything that happened was due to a ghost attack.

Was this what happened when a _shinigami_ doesn't do their job?

Ichigo's eyes widened as he remembered something that he hadn't been thinking about since he had first found himself in the city. There had been two things on his mind when he had left 'FentonWorks' (he winced inwardly. How could someone do that to their house? He'd practically fallen over his own feet when he saw the outside of the house for the first time): finding out where he was and going home.

After he had actually left, his priorities had changed slightly when he saw the number of ghosts and 'Hollows' roaming the area. Which now lead him to his next priority. It wasn't worry about his family wondering where he was -Kon was in his body so they wouldn't know he was gone and worry. Worry about his being gone anyway; worrying about his sudden change in behaviour on the other hand...- but the fact that he'd left his hometown without a _shinigami_ to protect it.

If a city without a _shinigami_ turned into a city like Amity Park, he didn't want the same to happen to Karakura Town.

Ichigo decided to see the ghost again. Maybe they would work something out, find out a few answers. Like if the ghost had seen a _shinigami_ before and if he had, when was the last time he had seen him or her?

But how to find that ghost... Thinking for a few minutes, Ichigo remembered the trick that he had used to find Yuuichi Shibata when the boy had been trapped in the body of a cockatiel. He focused like he had on that day, willing himself to find that one spark, that one thing that felt familiar so that he could reach the Spirit Thread of the ghost so that he could find him.

He concentrated, searching, sifting through all of the flashes that he could see, to find that one thread that told him it belonged to the ghost.

There.

Ichigo's eyes snapped open and he grabbed at the Spirit Thread so that he could follow it to the ghost. Or he tried to. As soon as his fingers brushed against the thread, it seemed to disintigrate - making it impossible for him to follow. Frowning in confusion (_that_ hadn't happened last time), Ichigo tried again. He found the familiarity again, faster this time, but when he reached for it, again, it disappeared in his hand.

Well, that was weird.

He then decided to go back to FentonWorks. With all the differences from his hometown, he wasn't completely surprised by the fact that the ghosts were different as well. So he didn't know what school the ghost haunted and he wasn't stupid enough to try to search each school one by one. There had to be at least ten high schools in a city this size. Finding each one and then trying to locate one ghost would waste too much time. He couldn't waste his time trying to find the ghost when he knew at least one of the ghosts haunts.

Making up his mind -and hoping he wouldn't get himself too lost- he started his trek back to FentonWorks.

* * *

Hollow: The name of bad spirits that are no longer human and eat souls of the dead and living alike.

_Kidou_. The demon arts used by the _shinigami_

_Kiokuchikan:_ The item used to replace memories.

_Konsou_. Soul burial. When the soul is sent to Soul Society.

Plus: A good spirit that's waiting to be sent to Heaven.

_Shinigami_: Translated as "Death God" or literally as "God of Death".

Spirit Thread: The visualization of spiritual auras. They are created by compressing spiritual auras in the atmosphere into visible "threads"

Soul Society: Heaven

* * *

Before people start yelling at me for the first half of the fic, it _is_ possible for friends to have arguements over little things. 

(snorts) I'd wanted to place a Cloud Strife reference in the last chapter but it turned up here instead. Well, they're gamers so what do you expect? The reference is to Final Fantasy VII.

The thing about Danny's comment about swords not being six foot long; I'm pretty sure that I've seen a sword that length in a museum. A ceremonial sword though, so not something you would weild in field combat.

The very last bit, before you tell me about that not being right, I'd gotten that from the animé where it pretty much looks like that.

Any problems, mistakes, typos, inconsistencies that you spot, please tell me. If you have a question about the fic, something that's confused you or doesn't make any sense, I'll try to explain and/or edit the fic to make it better.

The next update will be on the sixth of February.


	4. Revelations

Just to clear a little thing up, Amity Park and Karakura Town aren't on the same planet. Ichigo's Earth and Danny's Earth are different.

Translations and jargon are at the end.

* * *

**Crossing Over is Never Easy**

By Dark Ice Dragon**  
**

Revelations

* * *

Danny pushed the front door open with a sigh. He'd gone to his classes after lunch; he may as well have learned _something_ in the entire day of ghost fighting instead of skipping the last class as well. His first period class was math and well, it _was_ his worst subject after all, so it didn't count. 

He'd completely ignored Sam and Tucker throughout the class. Sam had sent him a few notes but he hadn't even opened them. When they had tried to talk to him afterwards, he was actually glad that he had detention. He'd been able to grab something else to snack on as well before it started.

Detention had included doing the homework that he had neglected to do for that day. He'd actually been able to do it _and_ without having to use the excuse of needing to 'go to the toilet' for once. There hadn't been that many people in detention with him and even better, Dash wasn't one of them either.

"Hi Danny." Danny looked into the kitchen and saw Jazz with numerous papers spread all over the kitchen table.

"A new assignment, Jazz?" he asked, pausing at the bottom of the staircase. He'd already had a hand on the banister and a foot on the first step before deciding to talk to her.

"Hmm?" She already had her head down when Danny asked the question. It was either that or she hadn't looked up in the first place. Which meant mom and dad were home if she didn't need to look up to know that it was him. For once in a long time, he wasn't actually late for curfew.

He rolled his eyes to himself at her distraction. "Never mind, Jazz. Don't mind me." There wasn't much point in talking to her when she was working on a project. She became completely focused on whatever she was doing and hardly anything could distract her apart from an earthquake - that would be because she couldn't read her notes properly. There would be other times where the complete opposite happened and she'd be twitching in irritation at hearing a mouse in the lab downstairs (Danny didn't know how a mouse could get in there anyway but the point still stood. Maybe a ghost mouse...).

Danny headed up to his room, trying to make as little as possible noise as he did so. He didn't want to know what kind of studying mood Jazz was in and he didn't want to find out the hard way.

Pushing the door to his room open, Danny frowned when he saw that it was occupied. Tucker was sitting on his desk chair while Sam looked like she was sitting on one of the kitchen chairs.

"What're you two doing here?" he asked them. He shrugged off his schoolbag and set it down next to the door. After that, he closed the door quietly and leaned on it, crossing his arms.

The two fidgeted -Tucker with his PDA and Sam with hem of her top- for a few seconds under Danny's gaze. It was Tucker who spoke up first.

"We're here to say we're sorry."

"Look Danny," Sam chimed in before Danny could retort anything, "we're your friends. We've seen what ghosts have done to you first-hand."

Tucker nodded, agreeing with her. "Yeah. Ghosts have hurt you doing all kinds of things to you; we're just trying to make sure that you don't get hurt in what ever we can."

Danny sighed and ran a hand through his unruly hair. He walked over and practically threw himself on to his unoccupied bed. "I know you're trying to protect me," he said a little tiredly, his voice muffled against the duvet. He rolled over so that he was laid flat on his back. "I figured that out when I was in detention." Seeing the look on his friends faces, he gave them a small smile.

"Hey, it was _math_," he reminded them. "You can't expect me to have my full attention on what's in front of me do you?" The question elicited a small strained smile from the two of them.

"It was just... frustrating," Danny said with a deep sigh escaping from his lips as he stared up at the ceiling. "I'd found someone who wasn't out to hurt me and was even concerned about my safety and then when I tell my two best friends about it, they instantly think it's a trap."

"Dude," Tucker said, stopping Danny from continuing further. "We couldn't see the guy, remember?" he reminded him. "For all we know, all you were seeing was an illusion created by another ghost to control you."

Danny face twisted to show doubt. He hadn't thought about Ichigo being an illusion - only that he maybe had another agenda. Now that he thought about it, when fighting the concrete ghost, Ichigo hadn't been doing anything when Danny had reached the two. A small frown formed on his face as he concentrated on remembering what happened.

"No, he can't be an illusion," Danny murmured slowly in the quiet room.

"Why not?"

"Because the concrete ghost - she saw him as well." But she was a ghost. Just like he had been at the time.

"It could just be that the illusion only affects ghosts," Tucker hypothesised, confirming Danny's unspoken thoughts.

Danny sat up on his bed and leaned back on the headboard with one leg dangling over the edge. "Or the two are working together," he said glumly. That entire encounter could have been an act. And because of that, he'd had a fight with his two friends.

"I - I don't think that's what's happening," Sam said, slightly tripping over her words. When Danny looked at her, he saw that she was avoiding his eyes. Danny realised that she hadn't joined in the conversation apart from the two sentences at the start.

"Why not?" he asked her.

"Because, because, ugh." She stopped with a sigh and looked up at the two of them. "I think I know but I'm not entirely sure. Can you just answer two questions before I know if I'm right or not?" Sam asked Danny as she held up two fingers for further clarification.

"Sure."

"Did you see that ghost again today?"

Danny shook his head. "No." He hadn't seen _any_ ghosts after seeing Ichigo, come to think of it.

"_What_ did he say he was when me and Tucker were there?"

Danny looked up at the ceiling and sighed. "Um, I can't completely remember; it was a foreign word though. He said he was a shin, a shini-"

"A _shinigami_," Sam breathed, her eyes widening and her skin paling even further from what it was normally like.

Both Danny and Tucker were surprised by her reaction. They shared a look between them, wondering what was wrong.

"Uh, yeah." Danny said, looking at Sam in concern. "That's exactly what he said he was. Sam, how did you know that?"

Sam bit her lip and her eyes slid away from the two. "He was telling the truth when he said that he didn't want you hurt," she said, her voice a little more subdued. "And he isn't some illusion by another ghost," she added.

"So, what does this _shinigami_ mean?" Tucker asked, pronuncing the unfamiliar word slowly. "And do you know what he's going to do? Mind filling us in?"

"Everyone knows what a _shinigami_ does," Sam said, her voice becoming a little stronger. "Even if you haven't studied the paranormal," she continued on before either of the two boys could butt in.

"You just have to know what the other names for a _shinigami_ are to know what they do."

She looked squarely at Danny and started to explain. "_Shinigami_ go under a lot of different names depending on the culture and the time: Anubis, the Grim Reaper, Death or Hades. You get the idea. _Shinigami_, in Japanese, literally means 'God of Death'."

Danny gasped and felt his eyes widen and the blood rush away from his face similiar to how Sam's had a few minutes before. He was suddenly glad that he was leaning on the headboard and not standing.

"No way..." Tucker denied in a hushed tone. He himself had gone pale when he had heard the information. His PDA was resting at his feet where he had dropped it.

"That's the reason why he didn't want you to be hurt," she murmured in the quiet room. Sam started to play with the end of her skirt. "It's so that he can send you to whatever's after this world."

Danny slid lower in his bed. "So now, I don't have to just fight ghosts, avoid my parents while trying to do my homework but I have to _also_ avoid from the God of Death now? I - ah - that's impossible!" He buried his face in his hands. "There's no way I can hide from a God. No way."

The room was silent, bar for the ticking of a clock. None of the three teenagers made eye contact with each other. The silence dragged on, turning uncomfortable as no-one knew what to say for comfort.

"One way you could hide from him would be if you stayed in human form," Tucker suggested, his voice low.

"But what about if I use my ghost powers? I can't just stop ghost fighting because someone wanted to send me to the 'next world'," Danny said, using air quotes. "All of the other ghosts in the Ghost Zone want to send me there anyway - just in a as painful way as possible. And I can't control my ghost sense; I can't turn it on or off! So he'll just have to walk near me and then my ghost sense will tell him where I am. Augh!"

Sam was playing with her hair while listening to Danny. "Well, you could try talking to him. He _can't_ send you to the next world," she protested. "You're half-ghost! He only deals with, well, you know what I mean." She trailed off, unable to find the right worlds.

"Talk to him?" Tucker said skeptically. "He's the God of Death! It's his _job_ to send ghosts like Danny to the next world."

"No..." Danny said quietly. "Sam's right. I'm half-ghost and I'm _still_ breathing. If he sends me to the next world, he'll be killing me-"

"And the God of Death only leads ghosts - he can't do anything to you," Tucker finished for Danny, the realisation dawning on the two boys at the same time.

Danny took a deep breath. "Okay, all I have to do is find Ichigo, tell him that I'm half-ghost and then he'll leave me alone. I hope."

There was a brief pause. "He has a _name_?" The disbelief was evident in their voices.

Dannt chuckled weakly at the response. "That's exactly what I said when he told me his name."

Sam raised an eyebrow. "Didn't you think that was weird?" she asked.

Danny shrugged, seeing the question on Tucker's face as well. "Well, yeah, but I didn't think it would mean anything." He looked up at the ceiling again in thought. "The last time I saw him, he was fighting a ghost so maybe the next time I fight a ghost, he'll be there." He took another deep breath. "Okay, so what am I going to say to the God of Death?"

Just then, there was a knock at Danny's door. The door opened and Danny's mom poked her head through to check that the teenagers were in the room. When she saw that they were, she came in with a plate of cookies.

"I'd made some cookies this afternoon and your father hasn't eaten all of them yet," she said as she set the plate on to the table next to Danny's bed. When she straighted up, she frowned in concern when her gaze fell on Danny. "Danny? Are you feeling okay? You look awfully pale." She placed her hand on Danny's forehead to check his temperature.

"He's not here either. Damnit, where _is_ that ghost?" Danny's eyes flickered to the centre of his room but he didn't need to because he recognised that voice. It was Ichigo, and he was looking really annoyed. Okay, he'd faced Pariah Dark a little while ago but that was different - Pariah Dark wasn't a god whose sole point in his existance was to send ghosts to the other world. Pariah Dark's sole point of his existance was to rule over all the ghosts in the Ghost Zone which was _completely_ different. Riiight. Well, Danny had went up against him in a fight and Ichigo seemed like a person who wasn't so single-minded since he hadn't tried to send Danny as soon as he had seen him.

"Uh, I'm fine mom. Really." Danny tried to smile at his mother while he hoped that he wasn't getting any paler under her careful watch. Hopefully Ichigo wouldn't say anything else because trying to make sense of the nearly in-sync timing his mom and he had was going to make hard for him to know what his mom was saying and answering was going to be _fun_. He could feel his heart starting to race and it felt like he was getting lightheaded from lack of air. It was like what it felt like when the adrenaline had hit his bloodstream when he had gotten into a fight with another ghost. What was he going to say to Ichigo when his mom left the room? 'Hi? I'm a half-ghost and please don't send me.' Did he _really_ have to look that annoyed now?

His mom continued to watch Danny a little longer. She seemed satisfied with what she saw as she nodded and then smiled. "Okay honey." She then left the room. Ichigo stepped out of her way without looking at her. It seemed like he was still searching for 'Danny Phantom' in Danny's room.

Ichigo scatched his head angrily and muttered, "How the hell am I supposed to find him?" So it seemed like Ichigo could only sense ghosts and not half-ghosts Danny noted.

Danny took a deep breath. Well, Ichigo was looking for him and he was right there so Danny didn't have to go searching for him. He rubbed the back of his neck uneasily. "Okay, no time the present I sup - what was _that_?" There had been a deep roar ripping through the air. It had the echo traditional of a ghost but it sounded feral. Like Wulf in one way but so different. It made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. Danny's head whipped round to stare out the window.

"What was what?"

"Oh you've gotta be friggin' kiddin' me!" Danny heard Ichigo yell, the frustration obvious in his voice. Ichigo was then at Danny's open window and swinging a leg over the windowledge. Just before he exited, Ichigo turned his head to look at Danny. "He heard it?" he muttered to himself. Ichigo swung his other leg over and slipped through the gap in the window.

As soon as Ichigo disappeared from view, Danny felt the familiar shiver down his spine and a plume of frozen air escaped from his mouth. Danny glared at it.

"You're a bit late aren't you?" he said to it.

"Danny?" he heard Sam ask.

He shook his head. "I'm okay, really. _Goin' ghost_." A flash of light and 'Danny Phantom' was hovering above the bed. He sighed again, trying to calm his nerves. "He's doing his job and and I'm doing mine. We aren't going to be able to talk during the fight but afterwards... That's when I'll do it." Assuring himself, Danny flew through the wall to find the ghost that he had heard.

* * *

Anubis: Egpytian God. He's more of a guardian of the dead and a guide to the people who have died. 

Hades: Greek God. Can also mean Hell.

_Shinigami_: Translated as "Death God" or literally as "God of Death".

* * *

(Pokes fic) Hmmm... 

I was wondering if I should replace Anubis with Osiris... He weighs the soul of a person to send them to 'Heaven' or to the God Amenti.

To me, the punctuation seems wrong and rather random. If you've got any suggestions on better wording or whatever, don't hesitate to tell me.

The whole thing about the three talking about powers, they're assuming that Ichigo can sense them and can track him down by doing that. :/ They seem a little OOC to me but be happy that you didn't see the first draft of this. Hoo boy.

Yeah, the top author note seems to contradict the end of this chapter but this will be explained... Eventually.

The next updates will be **monthly**. I've started uni again, we've been told that we're going to be working more and I'm not that far ahead in the next chapters. The next update will be on the seventh of March.


	5. Everything's Normal Really

Sorry if I still haven't replied to your reply yet - been a bit (okay, a lot) busy with uni. Guh, Danny Phantom is no longer on YouTube so I'm going to have some problems with mainly the Fenton weapons. Mostly with what they look like. If you know of a site that has pictures of them, it'd be pretty handy.

Just wondering, is the usage of italics for foreign words annoying/distracting for you? I'd been reading another fic recently that kinda did the same thing and, well, it didn't annoy me but it seemed… strange I suppose. One word I'm thinking about un-italicising is shinigami but I think I want to keep the other words as they are. Any thoughts?

Just a small warning: swear word ahead.

Translations and jargon are at the end.

* * *

**Crossing Over is Never Easy**

By Dark Ice Dragon**  
**

Everything's Normal. Really

* * *

Danny Phantom flew above the buildings and searched for anything out of the ordinary. Just a little to his left, there were the sounds of large-scale glass shattering and parts of buildings being destroyed. And, you know, the screaming was a big giveaway too. 

He sped in that direction and heard the roar again. Arriving at the scene of destruction, Danny paused momentarily at what he was seeing: a big black ghost that was about the size of a truck from its shoulders. It moved on four legs easily and had a long, thick, whip-like tail. It looked like it was wearing nothing apart from a white mask that had glowing yellow lights for eyes. Nothing decorated the mask bar for two black elongated upside-down triangles coming down from its left eye.

Seeing it, Danny was confused for a few seconds. The few ghost animals that he had seen –Cujo and the Fright Knight's steed- sure, they were a little different from what they used to be like when they were alive but they still resembled what they had been. Danny didn't know a single animal that looked like what was in front of him. He was sure that there weren't a lot of animals that were that big either.

"Damnit, I already purified you already!" He could see Ichigo attacking the ghost with his sword below him.

"Danny Phantom, stop what you're doing right now!" Danny cringed at the tone of voice that seemed like it came out of nowhere. His parents were here as well? Nothing could be simple, could it? And why was it that Ichigo and his mom kept on talking at the same time?

Wait, what? They were blaming him for this? He'd just gotten here! Didn't they realise that? Wasn't it kinda really noticeable since he'd flown right over their heads?

The black ghost cackled. "Idiot _shinigami_. Did you really think killing me would be so easy?" It swiped at Ichigo, claws extended but Ichigo was able to jump out of the way easily.

"I'm not doing anything!" Danny protested to his parents. "I'm not working with that black ghost!" Wasn't it obvious?

His parents ducked and ran for cover when the black ghost's tail smashed against the building wall above their head.

"Don't even try to trick us, Danny Phantom!" his mom yelled out at him. Well, at least they weren't calling him Inviso-Bill, Danny thought resignedly. "There isn't a black ghost there – it's impossible for ghosts to be black anyway because of their being made out of ectoplasm. The only ghost here, is _you_."

_What?_ But that ghost wasn't glowing… Huh, now why did _that_ sound familiar? No-one could see the other ghost either?

The black ghost howled in pain. Eyes flicking to the fight -he really didn't want to be distracted with his parents nearby- Danny saw blood spurt from an open wound on its chest.

He was about to turn back to his parents again to try to explain to them what was happening -two invisible ghosts were fighting and he had nothing to do with it. Really! …They were never going to believe him- when he realised what he had seen.

Blood. That ghost was bleeding. Not that he was squeamish or anything, but Danny had only seen one other ghost bleed: himself. Even then, when he bled in his ghost form, it was bright green – not the human red that was running out of the ghost.

Was it some kind of half-ghost like him and that was why it was so unlike any other ghost that he had encountered before? But even if that was true, that still didn't make any sense. He and Vlad were half-ghosts, but they still vaguely held the same shape that they did when they were half-ghost compared to their human shape. This ghost couldn't be compared to anything that was living on Earth. Unless it was like Cujo and it actually had two forms… That cleared up a few things once Danny started to think about it. This form in front of him probably didn't look anything like its 'small form'. It still didn't explain the blood though.

Danny froze at the familiar sound of a Fenton weapon powering up. He dodged out of instinct and saw the green blob of ectoplasmic goo fly past him and splat on the black ghost. It yelled out in surprise rather than in pain.

"What the hell?" Danny heard Ichigo shout out. He sidestepped out of the way of a falling green blob that dropped from the other ghost.

"Well Danny Phantom," Danny's dad called out slowly, "you were telling the truth this time." When Danny looked down at his parents, he could see both his parents pointing various Fenton weapons towards the black ghost.

What, they could see it now? Because it got hit by ectoplasm? Did that mean that every time a ghost went invisible to the living eye, all he had to do was hit it with something that shot out ectoplasm? They still couldn't see Ichigo since none of the ectoplasmic goo had hit him Danny noticed.

Now that Ichigo wasn't so close to the black ghost at that moment, Danny fired and ectoplasmic blast at it. It hit and the black ghost roared in pain. More blood flew from the new wound.

Surprised by the attack from above, the ghost stumbled into one of the buildings next to it. Glass shattered and rained onto the ground while parts of brick and concrete fell from the sky in thick dust clouds. Just before it crashed into the wall, one of its limbs grazed against a car; the screech being unmistakable. While the light tinkle of glass hitting the sidewalk could be heard, the sudden blaring of a car alarm made itself known.

Trying to ignore the incessant loud noise, Danny floated down slightly to try and see past the dust clouds. The ghost emerged scant seconds later and with a sweep of its hand, it backhanded Danny across the street where he landed a few feet away from where his parents were standing. At least he hadn't landed on his head he supposed. The car alarm wasn't helping though.

While Danny was getting back to his feet, he was able to see through a car window as the ghost's tail sped towards Ichigo. Ichigo jumped clear of it and attempted to slice its tail before it retracted away from him with unnatural speed. Its tail swerved back and counterattacked by slamming into Ichigo and sending him flying next to Danny.

The black ghost laughed. "Did you _really_ think that would work twice?" it taunted. "Are you that inexperienced that you don't know how else to attack?"

"Yeah, ya bastard," Danny heard Ichigo mutter under his breath as he got up on to his feet. "If I knew keydo, this would probably be easier."

Keydo? Danny wondered. What was that? Maybe Ichigo meant Aikido; it was the only thing that Danny could think of that sounded vaguely familiar to the word that Ichigo had said. Or he had just misheard him. But why would the God of Death need to know Aikido when he had that massive sword?

"Your ghost attack may not have affected it much but I bet a Fenton Foamer will!" Jack yelled happily. He was holding the weapon in his hands and fired a shot at the black ghost.

The black ghost snarled at Jack and Maddie as it swiped again at the thick neon-green fluid now covering its other shoulder. The two stared resolutely back, not giving an inch while they held on to their Fenton weapons. It started to make its way slowly, shaking the ectoplasmic goo off of its body as it did so.

Danny flew up again to try and distract it. When it didn't turn its head at him, Danny decided to fire another ectoplasmic blast to get its attention away from his parents. Even better, if he could momentarily blind it or something… That _would_ give them more of a chance to aim and fire wouldn't it? Danny aimed for its mask as a green ball quickly formed in his hands. The ghost glanced up at the green light just as the ball was about to hit.

It screamed this time. For longer, too. When it pulled its hands (or claws) away from its mask, Danny stared and felt his jaw open slightly. A part of its mask had cracked and crumbled from under the pressure of Danny's blast – underneath, poking through the hole, Danny could see part of a human face. The face wasn't glowing blue, translucent or see-through as was normal of ghost 'tone' – it was a living human face. And by living, it didn't have a grey pallor of a dead person; it really looked like the face was still alive. Its blue eye contrasted against the glowing yellow eye that was still hiding behind the black depths of the mask.

_'That's not possible; it has to be some sort of trick,'_ Danny thought, a little dazed at what he was seeing. What _was_ that ghost then, if it was even a ghost?

The human eye contorted in fury and it bared its teeth (or something like that since, was it a mask if it was able to show its teeth? It moved whenever the ghost spoke and normal masks didn't exactly do that. Except this wasn't a normal ghost – if you could call ghosts normal, really). The ghost then whirled around just as Danny saw Ichigo's form falling form the sky. The ghost lashed out with an arm to redirect the blade but somehow, Ichigo dodged, landed lightly on its arm for a second before continuing on his downward path. With his weight behind the sword (figuratively speaking of course, and now Danny was just getting confused with his own thoughts trying to work things out) it connected first with the mask, slashed straight through it and then completely through its body. Ichigo landed softly, as if he hadn't fell from a high distance (but why was he comparing him to what normal, living humans would react like?), only bending his knees slightly.

As Danny watched on in disbelief, the ghost's body dissolved into thin air. It wasn't any ghost trick that Danny knew about unless it was some sort of last-ditch attempt of an escape. Eyeing the sword in Ichigo's hand, Danny wondered if it sent ghosts to another dimension like the Fright Knight's did. If that was the case, instead of sending whoever in to a dimension where they relived their greatest fear, being cut by Ichigo's sword would send them to… Wait a minute, that ghost had been cut by Ichigo's sword before so –

"Hey you! I need to talk to you." Ichigo's half-shout towards him cut short the rest of Danny's thoughts.

"What just happened?" murmured Maddie. Looking down at his parents, Danny could see that they were shell-shocked by what they had seen. It was probably best if he left at that point; his parents would probably start to blame him for what had happened once they collected their bearings. Again.

Floating down so that his parents wouldn't overhear him talking, Danny warily asked Ichigo, "You're not going to send me like you did that ghost, are you?" He tilted his head in the direction of where the ghost had been standing.

Ichigo looked at him, surprise written all over his face. "Why would I do that?" he asked him.

Danny just rubbed the back of his neck. Because he was a ghost almost like the one you just sent? But he didn't say that out loud. "Listen, could we talk at my house?" Belatedly, Danny realised that Ichigo didn't know where that was. Okay, he was going to have to explain everything anyway.

He saw Ichigo nod slowly. "The house with 'Fenton Works' and all the machinery on top of it?"

Danny cringed slightly at the description. "Yeah, that one." Taking a look at the street around them, Danny saw how much destruction had occurred during the fight. The car alarm was still going – not surprising since no-one had come to switch it off. What sane person would? A quick closer look at the car showed that there were two clear gouges on the car's bonnet as well as the windscreen being completely covered in one big network of spider-web cracks. Maybe done by its tail.

The ground was littered by fragments of glass and brick and there was still a little bit of the dust cloud hanging in the air. The hole in the side of the building… Yeah, he really needed to get out of there before he was blamed for that. Hopefully no-one would come along and try and steal the –Danny tried to see inside- assortment of stationary that was being sold in that shop.

With a shake of his head, Danny flew up into the air to the height of the buildings. It wasn't_ that_ much damage. Kinda. There was only a need for rebuilding a couple of walls (one needing to be re-made), a new car and replace a few windows. The rest was cleaning up. A bit more compared to what ghost attacks were like but it always depended on the ghost didn't it?

Danny looked down to check the Ichigo was able to keep up with him just in time for him to see Ichigo land on the roof the building next to him from a jump. Um, okay.

He took off again at a moderate speed but Danny kept an eye on Ichigo as he flew home. What kind of God of Death ran on the ground and leaped from roof to roof (okay, the distance leaped was about twice the length a normal human could do) instead of flying?

He really hoped that Ichigo would be willing to answer at least some of his questions when they got to his house.

* * *

_Shinigami_: Translated as "Death God" or literally as "God of Death".

* * *

Arg, author notes of doom. 

**If you are going to point out my 'spelling mistake' about keydo read the paragraph after this. It was _intended_. It is _supposed _to be keydo. I _know_ that the correct spelling is _kidou/kidō._**

Since my Japanese pronunciation knowledge is non-existant, can someone tell me if the way that Danny heard Ichigo was right? I know that it's kidou - it's just that Danny was hearing the word for the first time so I put it on phonetically. Plus, it's from Danny's point of view.

The part about Danny only noticing his mum call him Danny Phantom - the second time was because he only really noticed that his parents were there the first time and that was it.

(Snort) The bit where Danny's getting confused near the end of the fight? I was getting confused too.

(Facepalm) There seems to be far too many questions in this fic altogether.

Hopefully I haven't fugged anything up with the blood coming out of a ghost.

Sheah, I _was _gonna have Ichigo cut off the Hollow's tail and then I reread the first chapter. Whoops.

I won't be able to reply to anyone's reviews for about a week. Course, sayin' that, you wouldn't be able to see if I'd replied what with the fanfic fairy dead again for the time being.

If you've noticed any mistakes, please tell me and I'll try to fix it.

The next update should hopefully be on the fourth of April. Uni/hand-in assignments willing.


	6. So Welcome?

Just to say again, I_ hadn't_ made a spelling mistake in the last chapter. It's _meant_ to be 'keydo' because of the chapter being from Danny's point of view and it was the first time he had heard the Japanese word.

Translations of the Japanese words or just canon jargon for Bleach are at the bottom.

* * *

**Crossing Over is Never Easy**

By Dark Ice Dragon**  
**

So. Welcome?

* * *

Danny went intangible and phased through the wall of his house to get into his room. Ichigo followed a few seconds later by coming in through the still-open window. 

Danny gently deposited his two friends on the floor (he had 'picked them up' while they were still making their way to where Danny had flown to) and then he floated slightly above his bed.

Ichigo glanced between the three of them alternately and then around the room. He hadn't said anything when Danny had swooped down on the two and started carrying them without any explanation. Or maybe he _had_ said something, but Danny couldn't hear him when he was flying overhead like he had been at the time.

"Why did you bring them?" Ichigo asked, indicating Sam and Tucker with a nod of his head once everyone was as settled as they could be for the time being.

"Because they're my best friends," Danny said, looking at him square in the eye, daring Ichigo to object. Not that he could really do anything to him if he _did_ object but Danny still had to say it.

To that response, Ichigo raised an eyebrow a little before sighing and shrugging one shoulder. He didn't say anything though.

Sam and Tucker looked up at Danny in surprise after hearing him speak to Ichigo. "He's here?" They were both somehow able to say at the same time.

Danny turned his head to face his friends and nodded. "Yeah. He's right by the window." He pointed to where Ichigo vaguely was. The two glanced at the window but he knew that they wouldn't be able to see him. While his parents had seen the black ghost, they hadn't seen Ichigo. It had something to do with it being hit by the Fenton Foamer, that much was obvious. Danny knew that there was a spare in the basement. Okay, there was _always_ a spare in the basement – as well as another six of that particular item.

"Hold on a sec," Danny said to the three people in the room. He didn't wait for an answer from any of them before he turned intangible and invisible again and flew through the floor, and then through to the basement.

After scanning around for a few seconds –he really _should_ do his chores; the lab was already getting into a mess again- Danny spotted another Fenton Foamer laying hazardly on top of an empty beaker. He saw the Ghost Gabber out of the corner of his eyes and debated about bringing it. Nah, what was the point? It would just get really annoying since it started repeating everything _he _said too. He picked the Fenton Foamer up, turned intangible (he was still invisible) and flew back to his room.

Sam and Tucker gaped at the weapon and then up at Danny. "Um, Danny, what're you doing?" Sam asked, looking in trepidation at the weapon in Danny's hands.

Danny looked at Ichigo when he was answering Sam's question. "When my parents hit that other ghost-"

"Hollow," Ichigo corrected him instantly.

"-uh, okay. Hollow." Weird name for a ghost. Well, not really, thinking about it. None of the other ghosts had 'normal' names did they? Like Bob. There was Spectra and Bertrand but they weren't regular names. Maybe all the people who died that had normal names passed on naturally. Huh. Oh, _greeaat_, he grumbled to himself, something else for him to think about that he didn't really have to. "When my dad hit Hollow with the Fenton Foamer, my parents could see it after that. It didn't seem to be hurt either so…" Danny trailed off, waited for Ichigo's answer.

Ichigo stared at the weapon warily. "I didn't know that there was anything that could reveal a Hollow to living eyes like that," Danny heard him say quietly. Danny wasn't sure if Ichigo was actually talking to him, or if he was supposed to hear that statement, so he didn't comment. Not that he knew what he could say to that anyway. Ichigo's gaze went up to Danny's face. "You want me to hit me with that just so that your friends can see me?"

"Well, yeah," Danny said with a small shrug of his shoulders. Then they could actually _see_ Ichigo and he was sure it was it was frustrating for them not being able to see Ichigo. Not to mention not being able to hear what he was saying. And they could still have a little doubt about if Danny was seeing things or if there was someone really there.

Ichigo frowned and then snorted, closing his eyes. He then scratched the back of his head and opened his eyes again before talking. "It would make talking to the three of you easier but I can't let you." He continued on before Danny could protest. "I have a job to do and if regular people could see me," –he moved his arms to indicate himself- "it'd be a lot harder to do, lookin' like this." Ichigo looked at the Foamer again. "Do you know if it's permanent or not?"

Danny lowered the Fenton Foamer a little resignedly. He had a point. The whole point of the God of Death was that no-one could see him work. If the citizens of Amity Park could see him… He had a huge sword strapped to his back. That was all that needed to be said, really. He wouldn't be able to get very far before being stopped by the police. Especially since he didn't have the ghostly aura of a ghost so the police would be instantly upon him. And they really hadn't been able to see how long the Fenton Foamer worked for since Ichigo… sent the ghost nearly straight away after it had been hit.

Tucker glanced at the spot where Ichigo was and then back to Danny. "Could we have a commentary of what's happening or maybe, I don't know, can we know what the God is saying? It's like trying to listen in on a phone call here," he grumbled.

Danny saw Ichigo's eyebrows wrinkle in puzzlement at the statement and fixed his gaze on Tucker. "God?" he repeated, even though Tucker couldn't hear Ichigo.

Danny looked at Ichigo carefully. "Yeah. That's what you called yourself when you said that you were a shin – a shini-"

"A _shinigami_," Sam and Ichigo supplied at the same time. _How_ did Ichigo always end up talking at the same time with someone else? It was getting annoying.

After correcting him, Ichigo thought over what Danny had said. He blinked and then shrugged non-commitantly. "Eh, I suppose."

There was a moment of relative silence as Sam and Tucker sat down on the chairs that they had been sitting on before Danny had flown of while Ichigo leaned on the windowsill. Danny noticed that he didn't take the sheath off of his back. Danny carefully placed the Fenton Foamer on his bedside table -if he was plain unlucky, it would still go off and hit Ichigo anyway- before hovering above his bed again.

"Danny?" He looked down at Sam. "Is he talking a lot or is no-one speaking?"

He glanced at Ichigo to see his reaction to the question and he _thought_ he saw a twitch of the lips. He wasn't sure and the rest of his face was impassive. "Heh. Um, no-one's talking," he said embarrassedly, scratching the side of his cheek. He laughed self-consciously.

Sam rolled her eyes and muttered something under her breath. Danny didn't ask her to repeat whatever she had said. Like he needed to, with that tone that she was using. And then he _knew_ that Ichigo's lips had twitched. Seemed like he was used to hearing that tone too. Weird.

With a steadying breath, Danny asked Ichigo, "Why did you want to talk to me?"

Ichigo rubbed the back of his neck and make a sound. "I don't get this city," he admitted. "I figured that you could answer a few questions since you seem to be well-known here." He paused. "And you can see me," he added as an afterthought.

Danny snorted. "You could say that," he said to Ichigo's first point. Well-known because most of the ghosts were trying to kill him or he had stopped a few world domination schemes and for that, they were trying to kill him. It was a great variety.

"Hn," Ichigo grunted. "How long has it been like this?" Ichigo jerked a thumb over his shoulder.

Danny looked where his thumb was pointing, but all he saw was the open window. His eyes went back to Ichigo. "This?" he repeated.

"All the ghosts," Ichigo elaborated.

"Uh…" Danny looked to his friends for help. They looked at him expectantly, waiting for Danny to say what they hadn't heard. "He's asking how long it's been since the ghosts started showing up," he explained.

Sam frowned slightly as she thought over the question while Tucker fished out his PDA. "They've been here ever since I can remember," Sam said slowly. Which was what Danny had thought. So, at least, something like fourteen years. He couldn't ask his parents; they'd end up lecturing him for hours and he might not even get the information that he wanted. Not to mention, his dad hadn't even seen a ghost until a few months ago.

"Mmm," Tucker agreed. "I think the first ghost sighting here was some time in the eighties." He looked up from his PDA to see his two friends staring at him. "What? I can be interested in ghosts too, you know. Well, I was enough to do a bit of research in the sixth grade; not enough to actually do any ghost hunting." Danny and Sam shared a look and then shrugged together.

"It's been, like this, for nearly twenty years?" Ichigo said quietly, stunned.

"Probably," Danny said with a small shrug of his shoulders again. It wasn't that bad was it? It was some sort of localised thing since there wasn't much news of ghost sightings anywhere else – bar from Wisconsin of course.

"What? What happened to the other _shinigami?_" Ichigo's voice was tinged with shock. He peered out of the window for some reason. It was a wasted effort, Danny knew. If you were waiting or expecting a ghost attack, it either didn't come then or you just had to listen out for terrified screams, not keep a lookout for ghosts.

Danny blinked at what Ichigo had said. "_Other...?_"

Ichigo turned his head to look at Danny again, looking pensive. He rubbed his forehead with a palm. "What do you know about _shinigami_?"

Danny looked at Sam and then back at Ichigo. "Technically, not a lot. I didn't even know what that word meant until Sam told me. I know that you send the unsent ghosts to the underworld."

Ichigo nodded and mumbled something that Danny didn't catch.

"Can I ask something?" Danny said.

The response was to glance back at Danny and another small nod.

"You said that you weren't going to send me – why? Isn't that your job to?" Danny asked. Not that he was complaining, obviously, but he was still curious as to why.

"You asked me if I was going to send you like I sent the Hollow. I wouldn't send a plus spirit like I send a Hollow," Ichigo explained.

A blank look from Danny. He didn't explain it very well. "Um… what? None of what you've just said made any sense!" And the way that Ichigo said it so matter-of-factly, it was like it was common knowledge. Sam probably knew it though.

"Can we know what you two are talking about?" Tucker asked in an annoyed tone. At the same time, Ichigo said:

"That's why I asked you what you knew about _shinigami_."

Danny groaned, trying to sort out what the two had said separately. He then turned his head to Sam. "Sam, what else do you know about shini –oh, I give up- God of Deaths?"

"Not much," she answered as she thought it over. "I know what the Western equivalent of _shinigami_ was but I just thought that a _shinigami_ would do the same thing as what the Grim Reaper does."

Ichigo seemed like he was mulling something over in his mind. He looked at Danny. "I'll tell you what I know about _shinigami_ and you'll answer my questions. Deal?"

When Danny asked the question to his two friends so that they knew what Ichigo had asked, Tucker's eyes sparked with interest - but not as much as Sam's.

"Take that as a yes?" Danny teased. They nodded. Hopefully he wouldn't get too immersed when he was listening to what Ichigo was saying and reiterating what was being said.

Would he even take in what Ichigo was going to say when he was doing so? At least he found another perk of being half-ghost – he wasn't going to get a dry mouth from talking too much.

* * *

Hollow: The name of bad spirits that are no longer human and eat souls of the dead and living alike. 

_Shinigami_: Translated as "Death God" or literally as "God of Death".

* * *

Shyeah, I thought that this was going to be the chapter that they'd get to really speak to each other. Turns out, nada. And knowing me, the explanations could just be over three chapters or something. (grumble grumble). And yes, my title/chapter title making sucks. 

Well, at least now we know what's going to happen in the next chapter.

Danny's treating the word 'Hollow' as the actual name for the Hollow instead of what it is.

How long has it been since there have been ghosts appearing? Jack says that he hasn't seen any ghosts before in the first episode; in the same episode, Sam says that seeing ghosts is normal and something along the lines of it being mainstream.

Does Danny know Spectra's first name? I know that it's Penelope but does Danny actually know it?

If you spot any problems, spelling mistakes, please tell me. I won't bite.

The next update will be on the second of May.

Last one: After the sixth of June, the next update'll be something like the first of August. I'm going to be going to see family that I haven't seen in something like nine years and staying with them for just under a month. It's pretty doubtful that I'll using that time to type up fanfiction.

The reason why it's the first of August instead of after I come back in July is, well, because I like updating on the first Wednesday of the month. (shrugs)


	7. Questions Answered? Or More Questions?

(Facepalm) I had to change the last note in the previous chapter. I actually went and checked the dates that I'd said update on and checked them against some stuff. Shyeah, turns out, I've got a portfolio to hand in some time after the 16th (on the 23rd) and the gah, the chater that should be coming out on the sixth of June might be a little hard for me. For one, the eighth chapter at the moment is like trying to pull teeth. I want action to happen! Not just talking with said, asked etc.. Also? It's just after my exams (and another essay to hand in right after that. Woe) so I'll be studying instead of writing and typing up fanfiction. If there isn't an update on the sixth... Well, I couldn't help it. (shrugs) I'll try to update within that Wednesday and the Wednesday after that.

Sorry it's a little late (or maybe I'm not depending on what time-frame you're in). I had to finish typing it up yesterday and I wanted to actually look over it instead of posting it up with mistakes and stuff.

Thanks to all the people who reviewed the last chapter.

Translations of the Japanese words or just canon jargon for Bleach are at the bottom.

* * *

**Crossing Over is Never Easy**

By Dark Ice Dragon**  
**

Questions Answered? Or More Questions asked?

* * *

"A _shinigami,_" –Danny still couldn't pronounce _that_ word so he substituted it with 'God of Death' every time it came up- "has two jobs: to send good spirits -called Plus spirits- to Soul Society-" Ichigo started before he was cut off.

"Soul Society?" Tucker repeated, confused.

"You call it heaven," Ichigo translated. Danny blinked at that. So heaven was called Soul Society. That was… different. It also said that no religion was 'right' though. "And the other is to purify bad spirits called Hollows," he continued. Oh. So 'Hollow' wasn't a specific name for a ghost then. … Wait, there's _more_ of them? How come he'd never seen any other Hollows before? Or heard of them? Wouldn't any of the other ghosts have even made a passing mention of them?

Danny stopped speaking though Ichigo didn't continue on straight away anyway. "That was what you were doing back there, wasn't it?" Danny realised. Hollows were 'bad' spirits. Coming from being 'hollow' and 'evil' inside. No-one could really come up with original and non-redundant names could they? Not that _he_ could talk. Danny Phantom. Riiight.

Ichigo nodded.

"So, what does a ghost have to do to be called a Hollow?" Sam asked Ichigo.

"Ah…" Ichigo scratched the back of his head. "Rukia told me there was two ways a spirit can become a Hollow: if they stay in the living world for too long after their death and if hate and despair consume their souls, and if a plus spirit is eaten by another Hollow and forcibly becomes a Hollow against their will." Danny swallowed at that. Technically, practically all the ghosts in Amity Park were Hollows then by the first definition. But as far as he was aware, none of the ghosts ate each other. So what else made a Hollow a Hollow ? Was there something else that set them apart from other ghosts? Or was Ichigo calling pretty much every ghost here a Hollow?

"Who's Rukia?" Tucker was the one to ask this question.

"Rukia is, another _shinigami_," Ichigo said slowly. "She…" he paused, unsure how to put what he wanted to say into words.

"There's more than one God of Death?" Sam asked, looking at the area where Ichigo was standing in. "Just how many Gods of Death are there?" Her tone was a little on the suspicious side.

To this, Ichigo merely shrugged. "Rukia hasn't told me the exact number. The main stuff she's told me is about Hollows and that _shinigami_ usually go back to Soul Society after they've purified a Hollow."

"So, why haven't you?" Tucker asked after a brief pause.

Ichigo sighed and rubbed his forehead with a palm once more. "Because I _can't_. The _shinigami_ in Soul Society don't even know I exist an' Rukia wants to keep it that way. Rukia is the proper _shinigami_ – I'm the temporary _shinigami_ that's acting in her place while she regains her powers."

Danny took a deep breath from after reiterating Ichigo's every word (even though he didn't need to, really). Then everything filtered though what had actually been said. _What!? Temporary_ God of Death? How'd _that _end up happening? How can you _temporarily_ be a God of Death? Both of his best friends were staring, mouths slightly agape, at the spot they thought Ichigo was standing in –Sam's gaze was too far right, Danny realised- when he looked at them to see their reaction. Good, so he wasn't the only one confused by what Ichigo had said that. And he didn't exist either? What the heck did that mean? Danny was beginning to get a headache. Nothing made any sense whenever he tried to get an explanation from Ichigo.

Ichigo's eyes flicked to the three of them in turn before he gently crossed his arms and slouched further on the windowsill. "You're taking this a lot better than I did," he commented.

Danny took another deep breath before exhaling and shrugged. "This is just another weird thing that happens here I guess. Hoboy. So, how old are you anyway?" Danny asked in curiosity.

"Huh?" Ichigo blinked at the question. "I'm fifteen."

Danny's eyes widened and his mouth really _did_ drop open at that. "But - that would mean - you're only –" Oh look, his brain just overloaded.

"Danny? What'd he say?" Sam asked cautiously. Tucker was looking at him in worry.

"He's, uh, fifteen," Danny said faintly. He floated down to actually sit on his bed. _Fifteen._ And again, the question, _how_ did he become a God of Death, even if it was temporary?

Sam and Tucker's reactions mirrored almost exactly how Danny's had been a minute earlier: shellshocked.

"You're only a year older than us?!" Tucker blurted out incredulously, actually being able to say what Danny had been trying to.

Ichigo seemed surprised by their reactions to this revelation. "I guess so," he said slowly. He didn't seem sure why they were making such a big deal out of his age. They had thought that he was _the_ God of Death. Which meant they had assumed that Ichigo would be thousands of years old. _Not_ just a year older (jeez, he could have just turned fifteen yesterday for all they knew).

Before anyone could say anything else to this, the racket of someone running up the stairs could be heard. All four heads turned to the sound.

"Ack!" Looking wildly around to make sure that there was nothing out of the ordinary, Danny realised that he still had the Fenton Foamer on his bedside-table. He quickly hid it beneath his bed (making sure he didn't accidentally set it off) and then changed back into his human form. The bed squeaked under his sudden weight.

A second's silence.

_"WHAT?!" _

:-:-:

Ichigo knew that he was staring at Danny just like how he and his friends had been staring at him (or where they thought he was) a few moments before, but then, he had reason to. Maybe just the same as those three had as well.

His entire appearance had _changed_: white hair turned to black; the black skin-tight suit (?) that he had been wearing morphed into a regular t-shirt and jeans; and, looking closely, Ichigo could even see that his eyes had changed colour from green to blue. All in a flash of light that lasted for a second. A blink of an eye. If that. He had heard the creak of the bed that proved that Danny was actually, physically there.

But how the hell did that happen? How did someone become – become a person that could choose when they're a spirit or not?

But, thinking back, that could explain a few things. When Ichigo had been searching for Danny by using his Spirit Thread, he thought he was searching for a spirit, not a living being. It also explained why the room wasn't dusty or in the process of being packed away if it was Danny's room; there was no need to since he was still living in the room. Another reason he had thought of, was that Danny had died a long time ago and the newest member of the family was now occupying the room.

The door opened and the girl with red hair that Ichigo had seen earlier, poked her head through the gap. "Danny!" she cried out in surprise. "You're… um, here!" When she was saying that, he eyes were darting around the room.

Danny's eyebrows furrowed and his lips curved in confused amusement. "Yeah, Jazz, I'm here. You heard me come in, remember?"

A blink of incomprehension. "I did? Oh yeah, I did." She laughed self-consciously and then said, "I just heard on TV that there was another ghost attack nearby and I was worried about you." Jazz had Ichigo's full attention after saying that. They actually said on the news that it was a ghost attack? But then… just how many people could see ghosts here? If it was on the news, then that meant that it was being taken seriously, didn't it? Unless it was another 'explosion' but Jazz knew that it wasn't really that.

A quick roll of the eyes. "I'm _fine_, Jazz. I haven't left the room since you last saw me."

Jazz bit her lip and looked like she wanted to add something else but she shook her head. "I'll be downstairs if you need me," she reminded them. She then retracted her head and closed the door.

Danny, Sam and the other boy, who Ichigo still didn't know the name of, heaved a sigh of relief. "Man, why was she worrying? I didn't leave the house through the front door so she 'knew' that I was still here. I don't get it," Danny complained.

Ichigo grunted. "She your older sister?"

"Hmm?" Danny turned his head to look at Ichigo. "Yeah, she's my older sister by two years. Why?

Ichigo shifted around slightly on the windowsill. "She's your older sister; she's _meant_ to worry over you. I've got two younger sisters and I want to protect them from anything that happens to them. I don't think that they can't take care of themselves –I know they can- but I'm still protective over them. It's what's being an older sibling is all about." He finished with a small shrug. It was a bit of a speech for him and it anyone he knew heard him, they would have been surprised – but they knew how he felt about his sisters so they wouldn't be _that_ surprised. He continued to keep his gaze on Danny to make sure that he understood his point.

"Wow," Danny said quietly. "I didn't think of it like that." Ichigo nodded to himself – he had gotten the point.

"What did he say Danny?" the other boy asked him, since the conversation was starting to become one-sided for him and Sam again.

Danny repeated what Ichigo had said. After that, the three of them was quiet as they mulled over it. Ichigo saw Sam's eyes begin to narrow in suspiscion for some reason.

Ichigo let them have that moment (why were they thinking it over? Wasn't it obvious?) before he asked Danny the question that had been bugging him since he had seen Danny transform. "How can you change into a spirit?" He had had other questions before that one but this question now had his highest priority over the rest, for obvious reasons.

Danny's eyes flicked to Ichigo before they slid to his friends. He took another deep breath and scratched the back of his head. "He's asking how I can become a ghost," he said before anyone could say anything. Danny started to fidget with the bed covers.

The girl, Sam, gave Danny a wry smile. "How about you start from the beginning?"

She got a roll of the eyes in return. "Ya think? But I was wondering if there should be… visuals when I'm explaining how I became like this." Danny waved and hand over his body.

The other boy shrugged. "It won't make _that_ much of a difference."

"You're talking about that… green thing, aren't you?" Ichigo asked carefully. Not that it was green _now_ with the hazard colours in front of it but it was still assumedly green behind the barrier.

Danny nodded slowly. "Yeah. The ghost portal."

The ghost… Ichigo felt uneasy by hearing the name. Ghost portal. Where did it lead to and did anything come out of it? From the name, did it mean that only ghosts could pass through it? Or did it lead to a world where ghosts resided, completely separate from the Earth where living people were in? …Like Soul Society.

"So… do you want to see it? Well, kinda see it."

Snapping out of his thoughts, Ichigo nodded to the question. If they could take the barrier down from the 'ghost portal' then maybe he could take the quicker route home. That was to say, of course, if he had even travelled through it. Something green _had_ grabbed him just after the Hollow attack (but how the hell had it gotten here instead of being purified and sent to Soul Society?) and when he was conscious again, the portal behind him was green. That could all be coincidence and since when could some kind of mode of transport forcibly haul a person away?

Danny started to lead them to his bedroom door when he paused. "Jazz was doing some homework when I came in – I don't know if she's still doing it but… you know, keep it quiet. You know what she's like sometimes when she's concentrating."

The other two chuckled, but it didn't last for long. "Yeah."

Ichigo followed them at the rear. They made it down the stairs and into the kitchen. Jazz looked up from her papers, her face curious. The TV was still on, the sound near silent in the background.

"We need to go down to the lab because…" Danny trailed off, unsure what to say.

"Homework!" Same finished for him quickly. She half pushed Danny so that he would start moving again.

The other boy nodded. "Making sure that he goes and does it."

"All right," Jazz murmured, returning to the work in front of her.

The four went down the steps to the lab. Looking around, not much had changed, Ichigo noted. As if it would, seeing only half a day had passed since he had last been there.

Danny was standing by one of the panels, glancing at it now again alongside his friends.

After blowing air through his teeth, Danny started to talk. "This is the Fenton ghost portal," he said, waving a hand to indicate the protective barrier. "I'm not going to open it because a ghost'd probably pop out if I did. One, I can't be bothered fighting at the moment and two, Jazz is upstairs – she'd definitely hear something and want to investigate."

So they could open the barrier to the ghost portal whenever they wanted. And from the sounds of it, the spirits that came from the ghost portal were the ones that created havoc for fun. If that was the case, then why did they open the door to the ghost portal in the first place?

"Right. The explanation," Danny said, gaining confidence in the telling of the tale. "A couple of months ago, my parents had been working on the ghost portal, trying to make it connect to the two worlds – they'd been trying to do that since college. After a lot of failed attempts, they gave up on it."

Danny shrugged. "I was curious and was Sam and Tucker." He nodded to each one. "I put on a hazmat suit and took a look inside.

"Turns out, there was an on-off switch inside it," he said, deadpan.

Ichigo didn't react, save for regarding the closed ghost portal. He didn't interrupt Danny.

Danny continued. "I lost consciousness. When I came too, the ghost portal was working… and I was a half-ghost, half-human. A halfa, as the other ghosts call me.

"Since then, I've been fighting ghosts that came out of the ghost portal while trying to keep up at school avoiding my parents as 'Danny Phantom'," he said this using air-quotes, "since they're ghost hunters and trying to be in before my curfew."

Ichigo turned his attention back to Danny. Curfew? He knew the problems with that – but at least he had Kon to inhabit his body while he was out 'working'.

"When _is_ your curfew?" Ichigo asked curiously. His pop was so friggin' strict about when he was supposed to be home at. And to him, an unreasonable time. But at least it wasn't too much of a problem since he didn't go out with his friends usually.

"Ten."

Ichigo stared at him, a blank look on his face. "I have to be home by seven."

* * *

Hollow: The name of bad spirits that are no longer human and eat souls of the dead and living alike.

Plus: A good spirit that's waiting to be sent to Heaven.

_Shinigami_: Translated as "Death God" or literally as "God of Death".

Soul Society: Heaven

Spirit Thread: The visualization of spiritual auras. They are created by compressing spiritual auras in the atmosphere into visible "threads"

* * *

**DISCONTINUED AND WILL NOT BE UPDATED. EVER.**

* * *

Guh. The chapter sucks. Mainly because I pretty much just finished typing it yesterday and then posted it. So it's pretty much rest assured that there'll be mistakes here even though I tried. See any, tell me.

This chapter'll probably get quite a few edits once I have enough time to do them. I'm going through the panic!, procastinate, worry, panic! cycle at the moment so it might be a while for the bigger ones. I'll do the ones that get pointed out to me though.

(frowns) I had a reason for wanting the characters into the basement but at the moment, it seems like a random thing that makes no sense and that was completely unneeded for them to go down. Bah.

Oh hay, look! I've got Ichigo's point of view again. It's been some time since the last time.

Wiki wasn't helpful with Jazz's age. Is she sixteen or what?

(headdesk) Far, far too many "shrugged" and "deep breath".

(Snort) So many questions, too little time, and only one person's question can be asked at the one time. I think I need to keep a note of the questions that Danny has or else I'll just forget them.

X3 I've been waiting to _aaaages_ to go and do the last part, the comparing of curfew. Of course, I forgot what time Danny is supposed to be home by.

Um, yeah, I drew some pic for the Hollow that's appeared in the fic. Not that good (and it's not exactly how it's meant to look) but ah well. http// www . deviantart . com/ deviation / 53426339 /

**The next update** **isn't coming**, sorry. I'd hit a steel wall in writing the eight chapter, I've lost interest in writing it and moved on to other fandoms so there won't be another chapter coming.


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